BE WOW-ED BY THE ‘OTHER PORTO’
A bold and ambitious €105m plan has made another area of the Douro Valley well worth a visit
AT A little over two hours’ flight from Dublin, Porto asserts its previously under-theradar credentials as one of Europe’s most charming city breaks.
Located at the mouth of the Douro River, which snakes its way for 900km from deep in the Iberian interior, the city’s Unesco-listed streetscapes have been having a moment.
The capital of the north and its surrounding countryside, not least the Douro Valley with its languid allure baked into submission by a ruthless summer sun, disports its own panoply of pleasures. It’s a very different Portugal to the Algarve, though that doesn’t mean beautiful beaches are off limits. They are, in fact, just a metro ride away.
It’s impossible not to be seduced by the maze of redroofed atmospheric alleyways tumbling down the steep slopes to the river’s edge in a discombobulated riot of colour. Those prepared to join a perma-queue of Harry Potter obsessives will eventually be ushered into the hallowed confines of the amazing Livraria Lello bookshop, a favourite of JK Rowling when she lived in Porto, and supposedly her inspiration for Hogwarts architecture.
Elsewhere, azulejos — the beautiful blue tiles for which Portugal is famous — are found all over Porto’s streets, not least in the stunning Sao Bento station, where there are 20,000 of them.
But it’s breathing in the far-reaching views, up on the iron girders of the Luis 1 bridge, that one fully embraces the city. With both banks of the Douro visible, the ‘other Porto’ on the opposite side makes its presence felt — Vila Nova de Gaia.
Technically a separate municipality, it’s synonymous with what’s made Porto famous since the 17th century — port wine. Vila Nova de Gaia appears as a rambling amalgamation of old warehouses used for storing and ageing wine, known as port lodges.
For centuries, the distinctive rabelo boats transported wine barrels from the quintas (vineyards) to Vila Nova de Gaia, the last such journey being undertaken in 1964.
These days, the Anglo-Portuguese family dynasties behind the industry are embracing new and radical possibilities for their fiefdom on the banks of the Douro.
Adrian Bridge, who heads up the Taylors’ Port empire, has assumed the lead role in an audacious plan to revitalise, if not re-invent, Villa Nova de Gaia’s 21st century story.
In 2010, he unveiled a brand new five-star hotel, the Yeatman, which sits right on top of the hill next to Taylor’s vis itor centre. A stupendous wide-framed panorama of the city skyline serves up truly stunning views to the Yeatman’s guests, sunning themselves around its wine-bottleshaped swimming pool. Suddenly, the wrong side of the river looked like the right place to be.
In 2020, the World Of Wine (WOW), Bridge’s €105 million follow-up to the Yeatman, was unveiled. At 55,000sqm, the expanse of repurposed wine lodges, cascading down the hillside is one of the biggest tourist developments in Europe. Anchored around a picturesque square affording views of the bridge and across the Douro, there are seven museums, and 12 restaurants and bars, interspersed with interactive experiences.
It’s a bold and ambitious move to create a ‘cultural district’ in what, for centuries, has been a commercial district. The design and build quality are seriously impressive and given the steep-sided approach down to the riverside, there’s an interconnectivity that goes up, down and sideways, rendering it all the more intriguing. With a lighthearted, laid-back approach it’s a bit like being inside a culturally inclined theme park, with an obvious appeal to families.
On a crystal-clear cobalt morning with winter sun infiltrating every corner of the Wine School, I’ve got half a dozen glasses of wine in front of me. No matter that it is still breakfast time, my voyage into a deeper understanding of Portuguese wine and its 340 grape varieties — 240 of them native — had begun, and what a fascinating journey it proved to be.
The Wine Experience, catering to professionals and novices alike, was much more though. Encompassing all aspects of the noble grape and the inebriated embrace in which it’s held huge swathes of humanity for thousands of years, it was my favourite of the museums.
This was closely followed by Planet Cork, which delved into a product we all take for granted, but which is every bit as emblematic of Portugal — the world’s biggest cork producer — as port wine.
In the centre of the country, in the Alentejo, lies the largest concentration of cork oak forests in the world, the eerie solitude of which I enjoyed on a train journey through them a few days later. I loved learning all about the astonishing versatility of this seemingly innocuous product, including, believe it or not, insulation for spacecraft.
The other museums range from the Pink Palace, devoted entirely to rosé wine, to the Chocolate Story, where chocoholics can immerse themselves in what isn’t just a museum but also a chocolate factory. There’s a museum documenting Porto’s history and another housing Adrian Bridge’s extensive private collection of drinking vessels from pre-history to the modern day, along with the Porto Fashion & Fabric Museum.
Vila Nova de Gaia, having been known as a purveyor of port wine, is now looking to become a purveyor of Portuguese culture. With a centuries-old, singular focus on its unique vinicultural product, the opposite side of the river has always danced to a different tune.